The Supreme Court struck a blow to white-collar prosecutors Thursday by limiting the scope of a law that is a favorite of the Justice Department in political and business corruption cases.
The court ruled in three separate cases that the Justice Department has gone too far in its use of the “honest-services fraud” statute.
The Supreme Court sent the cases of former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling and newspaper magnate Conrad Black back to lower appeals courts to determine whether their convictions on multiple corruption charges should be vacated. The high court’s ruling overturned only their convictions on the “honest-services fraud” charges.
In the third case, the court ruled that the “honest-services fraud” charge cannot be used in the pending case against former Alaska state representative Bruce Weyhrauch.
• AP INTERACTIVE: Supreme Court
• Ben Conery can be reached at bconery@washingtontimes.com.
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